ASRock X79 Extreme9 LGA 2011 Intel X79 SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard

Pros: Great features and usability while it lasted.

Cons: With nothing in my system overclocked at all, this board decided to die after about 6 months. I could have given it 2 or maybe 3 stars, but it also fried my cpu and gpu's with it.

Other Thoughts: Bought this board based on the reviews and the fact that I couldn't afford the extreme11. Really glad I didn't waste the money on the 11 now. Will NEVER buy from ASRock again!!!! Replacing with MSI that I know works!

Manufacturer Response:

Dear ASRock Customer

We sincerely apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused you. Sorry to hear that the mainboard has malfunction after 6 months of use which’s due to nature of electronic product, it can happen.
Please trouble shoot the mainboard,
Turn the power off
Clear the CMOS
Test with single memory module (non-ECC, un-buffered) on A1 slot, try with another known good memory if its same issue.
If you have any technical questions or warranty issues please contact us at 909-590-8308 or http://www.ASRock.com/support/tsd.asp. We can assist you shortly.


Thank you

ASRock SUPPORT
Tech Support Email: user@ASRockamerica.com

Pros: Hugely expandable with 6 PCIE slots, 8 DIMMS, 12 SATA ports, USB 3.0 etc... It's a great board with a lot of options. UEFI is great. The gameblaster sound card/network adapter is great... when it works. See below.

I use this board with a few hard drives and an optical drive as well as an SSD which I run my OS and media creation programs from. It is the perfect backbone for my system.

I have very litle overclocking experience, but this board allows for basically one-touch overclocking of my i7 3820. I don't push it too far, because I really don't need to, but it has a lot of OC options which are very easy to understand.

Cons: This problem may be unique to windows 8, but here goes.

The gameblaster soundcard is great- when it works. When it doesn't work it's a huge headache. It seems that when my computer goes to sleep the soundcard needs a full system restart in order to resume operation. It will not produce sound after the machine wakes up from sleep. It doesn't disappear from the device manager, and the output devices panel still shows it outputting sound (the meter bounces in time with the audio being played), but nothing comes out through the speakers.

I reached out to ASRock for support on this and rather than helping with troubleshooting they immediately told me that an RMA had been issued. I was to send the part in at my own expense and they would send out a new one. The whole process took about two weeks which wasn't bad. The problem was that I knew it wasn't going to solve my issue, but ASRock was not interested in addressing my concerns. They just wanted to replace the part. I assume that it's a driver/software issue or conflict, but I'm not sure how to resolve the problem. I have searched message boards but I've not been able to find a solution. I have reached out to them since the replacement part has the same issue with non-operation after the system wakes from sleep, but I have yet to hear a response.

I took off one star for the sound card issue with windows 8 because the gameblaster was one of the selling points for me with this board. I took off a second star for ASRock's lazy customer service approach when dealing with this issue.

Other Thoughts: The driver disk included with the board is not supported by windows 8, so you have to go online to the ASRock website to get the latest drivers. This isn't really a problem because it's what most users should probably do anyway. The problem is that some of the utilities that are advertised for the board, such as X-Fast charger, do not work with windows 8. I have reached out for help from ASRock support on this issue to no avail. They simply stopped responding to my inquiry.

Manufacturer Response:

Dear ASRock Customer

We sincerely apologize that you having difficulty with sound on mainboard. Please uninstall game blaster driver, using Windows 8 native driver to check if the symptom still occurs. If you have any technical questions or warranty issues please contact our Tech Support at http://www.ASRock.com/support/tsd.asp. We can assist you shortly.

Thank you

ASRock SUPPORT
Tech Support Email: user@ASRockamerica.com

Pros: All aspects of my board seem to work just fine (i.e. no broken components). There is a large amount of features available. Stable when OCing the CPU (My i7 3820 is currently running at 4.8Ghz)

Cons: Not a huge fan of UEIF BIOS on this board. With each change that is made a restart of the PC must be made before the board recognizes it, (i.e. bootable drives). If a BIOS setting is made that the board doesnt agree with it just wont turn on period. I then have to use the CMOS dump button on the rear of the board in order for it to boot; at which point I have to re-configure my RAID setup on the SATA controllers.
The SATA controllers are absolutely horrible to work with. I think that 3 individual SATA controllers for one board wasnt the best idea because it really limits RAID configurations and is just a headache on the end user. I have 2 OCZ Vector 128GB SSDs configured in RAID 0 and it took about 3 hours to find the correct Intel RAID driver in order for windows to recognize the RAID configuration on install. I have not been able to run my G.SKILL Ripjaws X (N82E16820231571) 2133 RAM at its adverstised settings (I know they work correctly on other boards), each time I enable an XMP profile the board doesnt boot. The most stable config I have been able to reach is 2084 Mhz on the 2133 kit.
This really cant be held against the board but I failed to pay attention when looking at the specs and didnt realize that it has dual 8pin power connectors, make sure your power supply can meet this requirement or you will be in the same position I was, having to order a Y-cable (N82E16812198019) when building your PC.

Other Thoughts: My Rig:
NZXT 630 Phantom (N82E16811146100)
AsRock x79 Extreme9 (N82E16813157285)
G.Skill Ripjaw X 16gb kit (N82E16820231571)
Intel i7 3820 (N82E16819115229)
EVGA GTX 660ti (N82E16814130810)
2x OCZ Vector 128GB SSD (N82E16820227915)
500GB Velociraptor (N82E16822236244)
1050w Ultra X4 PSU
Corsair H110 CPU Cooler (N82E16835181035)

Pros: Great features, relatively easy profile to fit in a tower case.

Cons: Lack of quality control, customer service.

Other Thoughts: I received my first mobo DoA. The second mobo worked fine for eight months, then the sound module died. No live tech support. I won't be buying from ASRock again.

Manufacturer Response:

Dear ASRock Customer

We sincerely apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused you. Sorry to hear the Game blaster card has malfunction after 8 months use which’s due to nature of electronic product, it can happen.
Please reseat the game blaster card (on PCIE3 slot).
Uninstall the sound driver, download and reinstall the sound driver again at “http://www.asrock.com/mb/overview.asp?cat=Download&Model=X79%20Extreme9 “ to check if its solved.
If still having same issues please contact our tech support at 909-590-8308. We can assist you shortly.

Thank you

ASRock SUPPORT
Tech Support Email: user@ASRockamerica.com

Pros: Nothing but good things to say about this board itself. It has a lot of internal SATA ports, extra USB 3.0 ports with a front 3.5" mount, looks amazing, and installed great with no problems.

Cons: Only con I really have is with the included sound card. The game blaster really did not do what I was looking for. It has a customization capability to change the ports to different outputs or inputs but they are all preset. You cannot change them individually. I play MMO's and like to run my headset by itself on the team communication, while the game sound plays through the speakers. I could not make this work without some rigging of the wiring setup. When the volume gets high, such as when playing music loudly, the front and center sound get muffled and garbled. If this card had a software setup that would allow individual setup of each port on the card, it would be much better.

Pros: one of the best boards ive worked with, so many usb i'll never run out, with the potential for 64gb of ram, and 5 pciex16 slots the up grade options are endless(as long as intel makes the haswell in 2011 socket) x79 xfan a whole lot quitier than everyone makes it out to be!

Cons: didnt care too much for the upside down ram slots

Other Thoughts: Phantom 820(see my review)
asrock extreme9 motherboard
i7 3820
intel lc thermal solution
roswell 1000lightning
16gb patriot 1833mhz
2 corsair force gs128gb(raid0)

Pros: One of the few boards that used the then new LGA 2011 socket. No problems placing hardware; slots are reasonably laid out. Very quiet fans. Nice extras.

Cons: Randomly hangs when loading the BIOS. Seems to occur most often on fresh boot-ups after being shut off for more than an hour. Rebooting a second time always gets past the issue, but annoying.

I have experienced a few complete lock-ups as other reviewers have; display locks, no keyboard response & no mouse response, also accompanied by a horrendous screeching output coming from the included Game Blaster. This has happens about once a month with mild use (3-6 hours a day).

Be careful with the "X" tools installer. The UI is far from perfect and doesn't follow standard UI conventions. For example, I clicked "Select all" and then proceeded to un-check a few of the options I didn't care for. The program ended up installing them all anyway when continuing. No problems at all with the tools after re-installing though.

Audio from the included Game Blaster card crackles & pops during the Windows start-up jingle. Outputs fine afterwards.

Other Thoughts: Bought and installed August 31, 2012. Reviewed on January 1, 2013. Primary uses: development, 3d modeling, gaming. Hardware is usually running 4-8 hours per day. My first ASRock board.

Components:
ASRock X79 Extreme9 LGA 2011 Intel X79 SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard

Intel Core i7-3820 Sandy Bridge-E 3.6GHz (3.8GHz Turbo Boost) LGA 2011 130W Quad-Core Desktop Processor BX80619i73820

COOLER MASTER Hyper 212 EVO RR-212E-20PK-R2 Continuous Direct Contact 120mm Sleeve CPU Cooler

COOLER MASTER Silent Pro RSA00-AMBAJ3-US 1000W ATX12V v2.3 / EPS12V v2.92 SLI Ready 80 PLUS BRONZE Certified Modular

Crucial M4 CT256M4SSD2BAA 2.5" 256GB SATA III MLC Internal Solid State Drive (SSD)

G.SKILL Ripjaws X Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1866 (PC3 14900) Desktop Memory Model F3-14900CL9D

Manufacturer Response:

Dear AsRock Customer

We sincerely apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused you. For the freeze issue, please check the CPU and system are not overheated. Set the UEFI BIOS default, test with 1 stick memory in A1 slot, try with another memory if is same issue. If you have any technical questions please contact us at http://www.asrock.com/support/tsd.asp. We can assist you shortly.

Thank you

AsRock SUPPORT
Tech Support Email: user@asrockamerica.com

Pros: Fantastic Board

Cons: Although it boasts "Windows 8 Ready" Drivers were not released until late December 2012 and still are not functioning correctly for the SB Recon 3Di. Recording is garbled and I am forced to switch back to windows 7.

Pros: This is my first ASRock motherboard for personal use. I have always stuck with Asus or Gigabyte in the past, but I was impressed with what the ASRock Extreme9 had to offer. I have purchased a few other ASRock boards for business use and was impressed so I decided to get one of the high end boards for myself.
I am running the 3930K and find it very easy to overclock. I am currently running @ 4.0GHz stable (nothing too extreme but a good boost in performance). The Creative Sound Core3D audio chip is amazing and produces incredible sound.
No problem with driver installs on windows 7. Installed network driver from disk and then got most up to date drivers from ASRock website. Very easy and straight forward.
I am running 2 (F3-1600C9Q-32GXM) for a total of 64 gb of memory and after implementing the XMP profile I receive the full 1600 bandwidth.
I also run virtual machines on individual SSD's and having all of the SATA ports built right onto the motherboard is a huge bonus for me. Not having to add additional SATA expansion cards and getting the full advantage of SATA3 6 gb/s.
I have a standalone RAID controller so I cannot vouch for the onboard RAID controllers. Yes there are more than one so be aware of that.

Cons: None thus far

Other Thoughts: One thing I was concerned with was the active cooling on the southbridge. I have had this before with a gigabyte motherboard and inevitably with any fan they will start to make noise when approaching end of life. However this fan only kicks on when the southbridge reaches a determined temperature and this temperature can be adjusted if desired. This will help prolong the life of the fan and having the irritation of replacing it later in life.

Will report back in a few weeks with additional thoughts if I remember. Most likely only if something goes wrong.

Pros: 12 internal SATA ports
2 eSATA ports
2 USB 3.0 motherboard headers
2 8-pin 12V motherboard power connectors (for improved stability during overclocking)
Fast Charging over USB, even charges the new iPad
UEFI Setup is quick & intuitive, big improvement over the 'old school' BIOS
Creative audio with quad-core audio processor

Cons: price, ASRock website downloads, black on black on black color scheme. I'd rather see color coded RAM slots. No documentation on the 2nd 8-pin power connector (not needed unless you're pushing for a high overclock btw...)

I went to he ASRock website to check for up-to-date drivers & downloads, they need to check out their top 3 competitors & figure out how properly lay out their downloads page... and upgraded servers wouldn't hurt either, I can't even reach 3Mbps download speed off of any other their download servers, but easily hit 25Mbps from their competitors...

But I'm not going to knock any eggs off for these things, the board shipped with the latest BIOS, and the driver CD already had all of the latest versions that are on the website, though Microsoft Update did have a newer version of the Creative sound card drivers...

Other Thoughts: I purchased this along with an Intel 3930K processor primarily for video editing & encoding. I chose this X79 board because of the multitude of SATA ports and because it has two front-panel USB 3.0 motherboard headers which allows me to hook one up to the case's front USB 3.0 ports, and connect my new USB 3.0 flash memory reader (for transferring video / photo from camera to PC) without a pass-though adapter.

I also mix audio with Cubase 6. Included Creative audio has a quad-core audio processor to remove all the audio processing tasks from the CPU. Though this really is a non-issue these days with the power of modern processors. That said, Cubase is known to not play well with many integrated audio solutions (Realtek...) without using a 3rd party plug-in. However, Cubase works perfectly with the Creative sound card, no 3rd party plug-in needed.